5 Things You Didn’t Know about Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2is a MMORPG created by ArenaNet. As stated by its name, it is a follow-up to Guild Wars, which was set in the same setting as its successor, which is to say, the continent of Tyria in a fantasy world of the game developer’s own creation. Overall, much of the story is focused on the player characters’ efforts to fight a new threat that has risen since the events of Guild Wars as well as what happens as a result of their efforts.

Here are 5 things that you may or may not have known about Guild Wars 2:

Persistent World with Instanced Environments

Guild Wars 2 is set in a persistent world, which can be summed up as a virtual world that continues to exist even when no one is interacting with it. However, it makes extensive use of instanced environments to prevent some of the problems that can pop up in persistent worlds. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, instancing is when new copies of certain locations are created for the additional players that enter them, thus lowering the competition for limited resources.

Free-to-Play

Initially, Guild Wars 2relied on a buy-to-play model, meaning that interested individuals did not need to pay subscription fees but could get started by just buying the game. In 2015, the people behind Guild Wars 2 changed its model to free-to-play in the sense that anyone who wanted to could get started by just downloading the core game free of charge. However, the expansions to the core game still come with a price, meaning that the core game can be seen as a sort of marketing for them. After all, a free-to-play model means more people who can be convinced to sign up, which in turn, means more opportunities to convince them to become paying customers.

Offers World vs World

Besides the standard sort of small-scale combat, Guild Wars 2 offers a mode called World versus World, which offers PVP combat on a massive scale conducted between players from three separate servers. Said mode takes place on another persistent world that is separate from that of the rest of the game, which players can leave at any time so long as they are not engaged in combat. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that characters are adjusted to Level 80 on an automatic basis upon entering World versus World, which combines with other features meant to make it that much more welcoming to interested individuals.

Set Centuries After Guild Wars

To be exact, Guild Wars is set two and a half centuries after the defeat of the Great Destroyer in the Guild Wars expansion called Eye of the North. As a result, it should come as no surprise to learn that there have been significant changes to the setting since that time. Primarily, the changes can be traced to the rise of five monstrous creatures called Elder Dragons that used to sleep beneath the continent of Tyria, which has had catastrophic consequences for significant swathes of the people living on said continent.

Guild Wars Accounts Provide Bonuses

Unsurprisingly, the characters on Guild Wars accounts cannot be transferred over to Guild Wars 2. However, ArenaNet has taken steps to honor its long-time fans by making sure that their accumulated achievements over on Guild Wars can provide their new accounts on Guild Wars 2 with special bonuses, which can be done by linking the two accounts. Suffice to say that this is a neat way to honor the players of the first game without breaking game balance in the process.

About The Author

Nat B

Nat is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Uncoached Corporation and all its properties. His primary roles are managing editorial, business development, content development, online acquisitions, and operations.
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